Never Again
by Imagine Jatie
Summary: Joey and John have been married for a year, and there has never been a problem. But when John starts showing another side to himself that Joey has never seen before, she starts investigating his background with the help of a detective, they uncover someth
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I don't own Dawson's Creek nor the characters, so don't sue.

Paring: Ummm, lets see, im on a D/Jo message board so it must be Pissy the chip slayer and Hoey the Slut master. Its D/Jo.

Rating: Unless there is a 12 year old on here that we are not aware of, I think you all are old enough. So PG-13, it can get a little dark though.

Summery: Joey and John have been married for a year, and there has never been a problem. But when John starts showing another side to himself that Joey has never seen before, she starts investigating his background with the help of a detective, they uncover something from Johns past that might hurt Joey's future. All the while something happens between Joey and the detective.

This is an AU fic.

Authors note: I got the title of this fic from a song called "Never Again" by Nickelback. I got the idea from a movie I had seen on Lifetime a couple months ago. I don't know how this will turn out, im just playing it by ear. So things might seem a little confusing in later chapters. This is my first 'Dark' fic, I've always thought I'd be fun to do one of these. So please be nice, and I would really love some advice. Anyway Happy New Years everyone.

'Never Again'

Prologue

He's drunk again, it's time to fight  
She must have done something wrong tonight  
The living room becomes a boxing ring  
It's time to run when you see him  
Clenching his hands  
She's just a woman  
Never Again

'She was terrified, she had never seen him act this way. Sure, he had gotten drunk before, but this was unusual. They had been together for year and a half, married for 1 year, yet this was new to her.' Joey thought as she lay on the floor, forehead cut up, blood dripping down from it.

John was passed out on the floor next to her, clutching a broken beer bottle. Joey was scared, she needed to get to the hospital, but she didn't want to wake up John in fear what he would do if he saw her gone.

Joey couldn't understand why he did it. Did she do something to upset him? Did something happen at work? He had called from the cab after work to say he was going to the bar with a couple guys from work, he didn't sound upset. He had come home drunk at midnight, mumbling something, but when she had simply asked him, 'Why are you so late?' he had just erupted and started yelling at her clutching a beer bottle in his left hand. They had argued for about five minutes before he smacked her head with the bottle and both of them must have passed out.

Joey tried to sit up, but her pounding headache made her fall back to the floor. Finally sitting up she read the clock, 2 AM. Reaching for the phone she dialed 911 as fast as she could, as the numbers were a bit blurry. She reached up to feel her forehead, blood, she knew it was there, she could feel it, releasing her hand from her forehead she saw the blood on her fingertips. Joey quickly glanced at John, who was still passed out beside her. Finally the operator picked up on the other end.

"Hello. 911. What's your emergency?"

"Sorry, wrong number." John said quickly grabbing the phone out of her hand and hanging it up and dragging Joey out of the apartment.

TBC….


	2. Chapter 1 the Meeting

Authors Note: Ah, I am back. Semester One is over and I passed all of my courses so I can breath easy and then start panicking for Semester Two. Im sorry I haven't been writing lately, I had a bit of a scare and had a lot on my mind, but it turns out it was negative. Plus my friend Amanda is having some problems, so im trying to help her. Don't worry though, im fine. But it turns out I will be having surgery on my neck, so I will be in bed for a few days as my neck will be very sore. This will be happening sometime in February. Im nervous, the only other times I've had surgery is for my tonsils and my wisdom teeth taken out. So please be patient because I have a lot happening right now and might not feel like writing.

'Never Again'

Part 1

I hear her scream, from down the hall  
Amazing she can even talk at all  
She cries to me, Go back to bed  
I'm terrified that she'll wind up  
Dead in his hands, She's just a woman  
Never Again

The same night….

"John, your scaring me, where are we going? John?" Joey says looking at him as the car speeds down the road finally coming to a stop.

"The hospital?" Joey asks

"Your going to go in there, tell them you fell and hit your head on the floor." John says getting out of the car.

"But…" Joey starts but gets cut off.

"Just do what I say. We will deal with this later." John says opening her door for her and forcing her out of the car.

Grabbing her hand forcefully, John practically drags her down the hallway of the hospital finally arriving in the ER waiting area. They walk up to the receptions desk.

"Hi, umm, I think I may need stitches." Joey says while shaking a bit.

"Ok, im going to need you to fill this out please, and bring it back when you are done with it." The nurse says as she hands Joey a form to fill out.

After an exhausting two hours in the waiting room, seeing different injuries and more blood then she has ever seen in her whole life, Joey finally gets called to be seen.

"Josephine Parker?" a man in a white coat says while reading from a chart.

"That's me." Joey says standing up and following the doctor back into a room that was full of injured people being treated.

"So what do we have here?" The doctor asks as he looks over the form and looks up at Joey.

"Well, I, umm, had been out late last night and when I got back to the apartment it was dark and I couldn't tell where I was going and must have fell and hit my head on the floor." Joey explains under John's scrutinized gaze.

"Were you intoxicated when you arrived home?" The doctor asks as her examines Joey's head.

"Uh, yes." Joey says still a little nervous at the way John was looking at her.

The doctor quickly glances at John who was standing beside Joey with an angered expression on his wholesome looking face. Confused he looks back at Joey who has a worried look on her face as she glances at John out of the corner of her eye.

"Well Mrs. Parker-" The doctor says but is quickly cut off by Joey.

"Its Joey, you can call me Joey." She says smiling at him.

"No, its Mrs. Parker." John says while giving her a warning look as the doctor looks on confused.

"Well, as I was saying Mrs. Parker, you'll need 6 or 7 stitches, its not very deep though." he says as he jots down a few things onto Joey's chart.

"How long will that take? Because I have to go to work in a couple hours." John asks hastily not seeming to care about Joey's head.

"Only About 15 minutes, I have to clean up the wound and then I'll stitch it up." He says as he takes off his gloves.

"Oh, I can't believe I forgot to say this, but my name is Dr. Evans." Dr. Evans says as he shakes Joeys hand.

"Nice meeting you." Joey says generally sincere.

"Well lets go into a private room. That's were all of the cleaning supplies are." Dr. Evans says as he leads them to the room.

"You better not say anything else Jo." John whispers hastily in her ear.

They finally arrive in the room and Dr. Evans has Joey sit on a table with paper on top, it reminded her of when she was a little girl and her mom would bring her to the pediatrician when she had had a cold or the flu, she missed her mom.

"Ok Joey, now this might sting a little, but it doesn't hurt that bad." Dr. Evans says as her dabs her head with cleaning alcohol.

Joey winces in pain as he takes a pair of tweezers and picks something out of her cut. Dr. Evans looks at it a bit confused and places it on the paper towel on the table next to him. However John doesn't notice this, since he's leaning against the wall, yawning, clearly bored. Dr. Evans starts stitching her cut up and once he's done he takes a pair of scissors and snips the remaining string off.

"Well, there you go Mrs. Parker. Now, since you can't get your stitches wet for about a week, your going to have to wear a bandage on it, and I want you to only take baths, no showers." Dr. Evans says as he puts a bandage over Joey's stitches. "Now here is a bag of bandages, I want you to change the band-aid every night before bed, try cleaning around the wound so it won't get infected. Come back in two weeks co I can remove the stitches. Alright. Do you have any questions?" he asks.

"No." Joey says smiling at him.

"Ok, well if you think of any when you get home just call the hospital and they will direct you to me. Alright. Have a great day Joey, nice meeting you Mr. Parker." Dr. Evans says as he walks out.

"Well that took forever." John says as they drive back to the apartment.

"Well this wouldn't of happened if you hadn't of hit me." Joey mumbles under her breath.

"Excuse me? What did you say?" John asks as he glances at Joey.

"Nothing." Joey whispers as she sinks down in her seat and puts her hand to her head still feeling a bit of pain. She decided she need aspirin and bad. Sure, she's had stitches before, but all of those times were accidents, falling out of a tree or off a swing, and she knew what John had done to her was NOT an accident.

As they pull up to the apartment buildings were they lived, John and Joey saw flashing lights and a couple cops standing around.

"Wonder what happened." Joey says to John as they step out of the car. They walk up to a man dressed in Jeans and black overcoat talking a police officer.

"Excuse me, but what happened here?" Joey asks as the cop and the man turn around to Joey and John.

"Oh, some women called 911 from this apartment building and hung up, so we are just checking it out to see if anybody's hurt." The officer says as he walks away.

"What?" Joey asks the man in the overcoat.

"They said they think it came from apartment number 9." The man says.

"Really? Oh, wow." Joey says as she crosses her arms over her chest. The man looks at her suspiciously as John walks up to Joey and puts his hands on her shoulders causing her to jump a bit.

"Its probably just some kids playing a prank or something." John says while eyeing the man. "Im going to go ahead upstairs." John says as he walks away.

"The husband?" The man asks.

"Yea." Joey says.

"Well, Mrs. …" The man says indicating to her to say her name.

"Mrs. Parker, or Joey." Joey says.

"Well Mrs. Parker, this neighborhood can get a little shady and if you have any information about that phone call give me a call, here's my card." The man says handing Joey his card, finally noticing the bandage on her forehead.

"What happened?" the man asks pointing to the bandage on her head.

"Oh, I just hit my head. Its fine though." Joey says reaching up to touch it, as the pain persists.

"Well, remember if you have any information give me a call." The man says as he walks away.

Joey watches as he walks away and looks at the card. It reads:

"Leery's Private Investigation

For a private investigator

Please contact Dawson Leery at 555-8215

We'll try any crime."

"So, Dawson Leery." Joey says as she glances behind her to find that he is out of sight. Sighing she walks upstairs.

Dawson enters his office as soon as the phone rings, groaning he quickly picks it up.

"Leery's private investigation, Dawson Leery speaking."

"Dawson, hey man, its Max." Max says on the other side of the line.

"Well, Well, if it isn't Mr. Max Evans, what can I do for you?" Dawson asks as he takes off his black overcoat, sits in his chair, and puts his feet up on his desk, leaning back.

"Yea, I know, its been a while." Max says sighing on the other end.

"A while? Its been almost two years." Dawson says.

"I know, im sorry, I've just had some things to deal with lately, anyway I had this patient this morning come into the ER with a pretty deep cut on her forehead." Max says.

"Ok, im listening." Dawson says.

"Well, she had said that she had fell and hit her head, but when I was cleaning the wound I found a few pieces of glass. She had also said that she had been intoxicated but when I had her blood tested, no traces of alcohol was found, now I may be a bit paranoid but it seems weird, also her husband was looking at her strangely, like she had done something wrong or something." Max says.

"Really, what were their names?" Dawson asks generally interested.

"Her name was Joey Parker and his name was John Parker, which is weird because I swear I've heard that name before." Max says.

"Joey Parker, Joey Parker, I swear I heard that name before." Dawson says trying to remember.

Flashback:

"Well, Mrs. …" The man says indicating to her to say her name.

"Mrs. Parker, or Joey." Joey says.

End of flashback.

"Oh my god, I just met her." Dawson says finally remembering.

"Really, where?" Max asks.

"Well, I had been called in to investigate this mysterious call, somebody had called 911, and then some man came on the phone, said something and hung up. Well it just so happens that she lives in the apartment where the call came from." Dawson says.

"Weird. But I swear I've heard that name before. John Parker, it just seems so familiar." Max says.

"So how is your sister doing?" Dawson asks.

"She getting better, still weak, but she's in physical therapy, almost able to walk." Max says.

"Really, that's great man, send her my love." Dawson says.

"Will do. Are you going to try and get a hold of Mrs. Parker." Max asks.

"No, if she needs my help, she'll call." Dawson says.

"Alright. See ya man, bye Dawson." Max says laughing a bit.

"Bye." Dawson says as he hangs up the phone. He just sits there in the darkness of his office thinking. "Who the hell are you John Parker?" Dawson whispers to himself.

TBC….


End file.
